Dover Athletic Assistant Sentenced For Stealing £15,000

On the 13th June, Michelle Parker finance assistant of the non-league football club was arrested after pocketing £15,000. It is said that she stole cash more than fourty times during a ten-month period between 2014 and last year in September.

Yesterday, Judge Zachary wrote: I agree that even if she paid £10 a week at least, it would be something towards the debt. When people say she has got away with it, she still received a 20 month suspended sentence. Benefit fraudsters get away with it all the time as they don’t get a sentence and only pay back £5 a week with our money. Looking around the courts in the last few days here are some sentences handed out: drunken driver reverses into marquee and injures 21 people 16 months, heroin dealer 24 months, a man punches girlfriend and baby 16 months and GBH 12 months suspended. I know who I would prefer on the streets, and the missing amounts of money has mostly hurt the clubs who are very poor in the community!

44-year-old Michelle, of Gatekeepers Chase, Rainham, did avoid being prisoned for the theft! Instead, she was given a 20-month sentence and got suspended for 18 months. Since she is in a lot of debt, she hasn’t been ordered to pay back the amount. Judge told Parker that; since she had managed to steal from the community, she has to carry out three hundred hours of unpaid work. Defending prosecutor Laura Phillips said “Michelle was only one of the two paid workers in the club! As the club is run by a large number of unpaid volunteers”. However, she had been in huge debt since her divorcing bailiffs at Canterbury. Her stealing was only exposed when the financial chief discovered that payments had been transferred into Parker’s bank account. Though the truth was she had three secret bank accounts, and she only admitted to the full extent of her stealing a few months later in the 2nd interview.

Michelle’s lawyer John told the judge that Michelle’s conduct was inexcusable really though she feels upset! She was up to her eyeballs in debts.” Judge Heather denied that she had been living a lavish lifestyle, and claimed that she hadn’t gone been on a holiday since 2012.

“After Parker’s divorce her life faced a lot of challenging spirals”, he added. Michelle Parker wept when she was told that she deserved to go to prison. Although, the judge was going to suspend the sentence! She ordered Parker to wear an electronic tag for the next three months and also to remain at her home from 7pm to 7am.

Michelle Parker runs her own business, which is a cake making and decorating business and she is hardly unemployed. Many agree that the sentence she received was not enough, and she should’ve received more penalties to serve as an example to others with the same character. However, for around two years from now, she will work with no salaries unlike before, to pay for her debts to the club and the community, among other restrictions to her freedom of movement.